Regards,

Mr John Lim

Mr John Lim

Regards,

Mr Lim

We had lessons as usual and were called out of our classes to make dumplings. Some of us were not called out as the teachers could not find them, so they were left in class. Most of us had trouble shaping the dumplings. Finally, the dumplings were made and we had them for lunch! They were scrumptious and most of us enjoyed them.

After school, we went to the Purple Mountain Observatory. We had to climb up the rather steep mountain and it was pretty tiring. We took at least one and a half hour to and fro. The road was full of rocks and many vehicles were going up and down. To keep us going, Mr Lim led in the P5 camp cheers like "Bukit Timah Oi!"

A topless man walked past and Mr Lim wanted us to tease him by shouting "Yo SEXY!" We cheered and sang the "I Live In Singapura" song once we reached the peak. It was very funny as all the boys sang it. After listening to the commentary by Mr Yan, our tour guide, and looking at some astronomical instruments,we all made our way down. Our group was impressed by the scientific knowledge of the ancient Chinese. The Germans were so impressed that they took away these instruments before returning them back to China.

The teachers then took us to a shopping mall to buy gift items. Mr Yan gave us an hour to shop. After that, we had our dinner at KFC. Our two very helpful members, Vanessa and Megan, distributed the food to us. This was the first time we had fast food since arriving in China.

Two more days to go...

Megan, Vanessa, Shanice, Celine, Suen Chi, Suen Hong and Jared (Group 2)

The English lessons were easy for us to understand. Ms Tay and Ms Thia even conducted an English lesson for the pupils of Primary 6(2) on the different types of sports. The Mathematics topic that was taught was on the area of circles. It was very difficult for us to understand as the lesson was conducted in Mandarin. The Mother Tongue lessons conducted here were of much higher standard than we learnt in Singapore. Our buddies help to enlighten us when the lessons get too difficult for us to understand.

After a delicious lunch, we rehearsed for the Children's Day Celebration that will be held on this coming Friday. We are definitely to experience Children's Day Celebration in China as we were told that this is an important occasion in the country.

The trip to the Nanjing Museum was a meaningful one. I (Adam) learnt that in the past decades, the Chinese like exploring treasures. At the jade section, he was truly amazed by the warrior suit madeof jade. This showed him how the Chinese lived in the past. Jasper observed that China was one of the first countries with an ancient civilisation which started smelting bronze.

Rachel found that the Ming Dynasty City Wall very interesting. It was like a gigantic bridge which protected Nanjing city from invaders in the past. Together with her friends, she took pictures of the beautiful scenery.  

After dinne, we went to Book Mall, which was 4-storeys high. Emilia bought 2 Chinese storybooks - the "Ma Xiao Tiao" series after Joy's recommendation. Emilia was encouraged to read more Chinese books so as to improve her Mandarin. Similarly, Yan Quan bought 2 Chinese storybooks as she felt that they were worth the price. 

As for Xiaoxian, it was her first experience in such a huge bookstore. She was very excited! She bought a pencil box and enjoyed browsing the books that were on display. Xiaoling noticed a variety of books in the store but thought that they were rather expensive. She was also astonished to see so many security guards as there were several entry and exit points.

That's all for today!

Yan Quan, Rachel, Xiaoling, Xiaoxian, Adam and Jasper (Group 3)

The next place that we went to was the Wuxi Huishan clay figurines plant. We each made our own snail and pig figurines. We were allowed to use the remaining clay to make any characters that we wanted to. The clay is black and muddy. When it dries on our palms, it hardens.

I (Xinyi) felt that the ride on the cruise was very cooling. Together with my friends, we went to the deck of the cruise excitedly, and stood there to admire the scenery while the sea breeze brushed across our faces. When I was making the clay figurines, I had to use my imagination and creativity to think of what I wanted to make. I learnt that not many people are very patient nowadays when doing such activities. The number of skilled masters in making clay figurines is dwindling in the modern times.

Lydia felt that the lunch was so sumptious that she ate three bowls of rice with steamed egg, some vegetables and  meat. She found the food very delicious as many dishes were her favourite. The food served in China is almost the same as in Singapore. It reminded her of her home-cooked dishes.

Remus thought that the Three Kingdoms City was very nice, but disappointed as there was nothing much to buy there. He learnt that the Three Kingdoms cities include Wei, Shu and Wu. Their leaders were Cao cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan repectively.

Chloe felt that Hangzhou in comparison to Nanjing, was a much cleaner environment. The air was fresher there and it was not as warm as in Nanjing. Along the way to Wuxi, we saw a convoy of army. They were sent to Sichuan to help the quake victims. It was a rare sight and we waved at them to show our moral support for them. Some of the soldiers even saluted at us.  

Good night!

Wu Xinyi, Chloe Koh, Lydia Loo and Remus See (Group 5)

Nanjing is a beautiful place. As I think most parents would be very interested about our homestay experience, I (Joy) shall write about it first. On my part, I think the homestay was fantastic! The families treated us like their own relatives and they were really nice to us. :) Some of us were homesick as we really missed our parents. On the second day of our homestay, our buddies' families took us to some scenic spots like the zoo and the theme park. In fact, we had so much fun that we were all quite reluctant to leave them on the third day.

We took about a three-hour ride to Hangzhou yesterday. We then later went to watch a performance. This performance was based on the old stories of Hangzhou. We really enjoyed it and we were astounded by their dance moves. The coordination between the movement of the props and the dancers was so swift that the audience did not notice!

Today was a busy day.  We visited many places like the tomb of General Yue Fei, the Flying Peak, the Lingyin Temple, the Flowers Harbour, the West Lake(Xi Hu), the Riverside Street, the Six Harmony Pagoda and the Qiantang Bridge. 

I really enjoyed the cruise watching at the West Lake. During the cruise, we actually stopped at the deepest part of the lake and went up to the front and back decks to have some pictures taken. We learnt that even though the West Lake looked very deep, the deepest of the lake was actually 2.88m long! The shallower part of the lake was only 1m - 1.2m long. The scenery was breathtaking, and upon arrival, we witnessed several wedding couples taking wedding pictures by the jetty.

In part of the West Lake area, there were many peacocks. Jia Sen mentioned that the peacocks there wanted to show off to their mates. They would shake the lower part of their bodies to open their beautiful feathers. 
He observed that however hard the males try
to impress the females, the females did not seem to be interested.

En Yi felt that Temple of General Yue Fei was interesting. The clothes of Yue Fei and his son were put in the tomb. Wei Qin thinks that both General Yue Fei and his son, Yue Yun, were courageous and loyal. At Lingyin Temple, Tanya thought that the caves were especially cooling inside. In one of the caves, Anthony and some others went to touch the "Fortune Buddha" as it was rumored to bring wealth to those who touch the Buddha's hand. When we were doing fish watching at the Flowers Harbour, some of us bought fish food to feed the fish.

Mr John Lim noticed that budgetting was a problem for some of us. Even though there are still five more days to go, some of our friends only had 80RMB left!  

So far, we think that this trip is very meaningful and indeed, a good experience for us Singaporeans as we get the opportunities to learn more about China's rich culture and history.

Lots of Love,
Joy, Wei Qin, Tanya, En Yi, Anthony and Jia Sen (Group 4)

The kids enjoyed their homestay tremendously. They had lots of stories to tell. They were treated like VIPs by their buddies and  families. The anxious kids who called and messaged Mr Lim the night
before, enjoyed themselves so much that they wanted to extend their homestay! Two of our kids even attended weddings.

Mr John Lim

Regards,

Mr John Lim

From,

Mr John Lim

From,

Mr John Lim Chong Eng

So how's the weather?

I bet it's not as swelteringly hot as in Singapore - here we're perspiring just standing around!

Have a lovely Nanjing dinner! We wish all our BTPS pupils and teachers and Nanjing friends a successful meet!

Love from All Of Us!

I like the conference event a lot because you get to see your teacher sing and dance.

I also like the kampong as we get to experience how people over there live (in what type of conditions), their beliefs and I enjoyed learning how they wear the kebayas (the catwalk was so fun). 

The Nonyas n Baba`s museum was so very interesting - seeing how they live and learning about their wedding day and traditions.

Evelyn Lam - 6 Truth

Mr Idris a.k.a. Part-time Rocker

I enjoyed the trail in the Kampong most as the landscape was so rustic and the houses almost looked doll-like because of the candy colours. In one of the houses, I saw a monkey scratching its master's head and he seemed to be totally enjoying it (I mean the man, not the monkey!) .

My 6T pupils understand me when I say that it was so cool to watch the rubber tapping -they know how much I love to collect rubber seeds! 

I also adored the Peranankan house and realy wished I lived in such a house - a peaceful haven and the verandas and clack-clacking on the wooden floors made me feel nostalgic as Mauritian homes have these too. For one moment, I imagined myself looking through the hole in the floor and seeing some unwanted guests and erm... like the tour guide suggested tossing the contents of the chamberpot over them - oops nasty, very nasty!

Above all, seeing sleepy heads but happy heads early in the morning was refreshing as we all sat to the sumptuous breakfast together! No shouting, no reminding to be quiet - just blissful faces enjoying breakfast!

Mrs Chien

After lunch, the first activity we had the Domino challenge. The purpose of the challenge was to develop our patience, concentration and co-operation. We had a lot of fun arranging the domino bricks. We also learned many techniques of arranging the bricks to get the effects we want.

In the final challenge, we had to use more than 10, 000 bricks to form the Chinese characters "Warmly welcome students and teachers from Singapore"!

In the evening, we visited a hydro-electric dam. The view was very breath taking. We had dinner at a farmer's place. We found the chicken very tasty. The teachers loved the vegetables. All the ingredients for the meal were freshly prepared at the farm.

Done by: Toh Sin Yi, Ong Han Sheng, Liu Chia Chih, Abraham Lau, Brian Tan and Stanley Alexander

At our special request, the school arranged for us to have one morning of PE lesson. The boys had coaching in soccer followed by a friendly match. It was an exciting match and we had the upper hand. Unfortunately, the score remained as 0-0 at full time. We did almost scored two goals but they were blocked by the goal posts.

The girls had volleyball training by an ex-national player, who was also the PE teacher. The Principal mentioned that some of our girls had a natural flair for volleyball and looked promising.

Meanwhile, Mr Lim and the teachers had a professional dialogue with the Principal and some of her key staff. We hope that they would be able to plan for more students exchange programmes in future.

For lunch, we were treated to a sumptious meal at a restaurant in the neighbourhood. We thought it must have cost them a lot of money. 

After lunch, we had a gift exchange with our Nanjing friends. They were very thoughtful in selecting the gifts for us. Nicole Lim received a Merlion clay figure and Jie Yin received a first day cover that commemorated the friendship between Singapore and China. The tour guide said that this was a collector's item.

Sin Yi received a soft toy of two monkeys holding hands (monkeys are his favourite animals). Chia Chih received a transformers set. Han Sheng received Chinese paper cutting of the character prosperity.  Their gifts showed that they valued our friendship. 

At the Sun Yat-sen museum and the Zhongshan Mausoleum:

In the afternoon, we visited two special places of attraction that honoured Dr Sun Yat-sen. We thought that he was a great man. China would not be what it is today without him. Mr Lim said that our Minister Mentor Lee called him the one man who changed China.

Day 7   

On our last day, we bid farewell to all our friends from Nanjing. We left many fond memories which were captured on camera by Ms Tay and their HOD IT. The Principal gave us a ppt presentation of the selected photos.

Three of our Nanjing friends shared in eloquent Mandarin about their reflections on our interaction these few days. The Principal thanked us for initiating the first visit to make friends with her students and learn more about each other's cultures. She looked forward to our two schools establishing a lasting twinning partnership. Mr Lim thanked the Principal, staff & students for their hospitality these 4 days.  He invited them to visit BTPS next year to continue this meaningful international friendship.  

Done by: Toh Sin Yi, Brian Tan, Ong Han Sheng, Abraham Lau, Stanley Alexander, Liu Chia Chih

We were warmly received by the students. When they come and visit us, I would want to be just as welcoming. 

During the Chinese lesson in the computer lab:

- While we used Hanyu Pin Yin, they used a different form of word recognition. 

- To keep the lab clean, they put on a home-made dust bag over their shoes.

- There were times when we were not able to understand their Mandarin because of the accent and the speed in which they spoke.

- During the Art lesson in the lab, we were really impressed by the way they blend colours.

- The music lesson was an eye opener. The children were able to pick up the song so easily even though it was the first time they were singing it.

Done by: Goh Ru Yan, Phneah Kai Ting, Tina Low, Rachel Neo, Chua Ying Xuan and Tay Jie Yin

We felt very nervous yet felt like a special VIP. We were immediately led to the front and some students came forward to tie red scarves around our necks. Later, we were told that this was only done as a form of the highest honour.

Our group joined Class 4/4 for a lesson on Chinese poetry, followed by a music lesson. They spoke fast because of their strong accent as they are speaking standard Mandarin.

We were asked many questions by the curious students and teachers. The teacher asked about the length of one teaching period, the kind of subjects we study and how much homework was given each day.

The students asked about the kind of food we eat in Singapore, how students are being disciplined in the classroom and the time we wake up each day. 

Lunch was great! We were served a sumptious lunch at the school cafetaria. You won't believe that it resembles one of our local foodcourts!

The school's buildings look very modern and the facilities are very impressive. They include a lecture theatre, a recording studio, students' hostel, a running track, two rooftop gardens, a black box theatre and several computer labs with the latest desktops.

We are not in favour of having such a lunch programme in BTPS. This would mean that we would have to stay in school for a longer time.

We also noticed some international students including an Indian girl among the student population. It looks like the school is becoming very popular not only among the locals but also the expatriates.

Visit to Gong Yuan - The only central examination hall in the whole of China.

- We found the education system in ancient China to be very stressful for students. The people worked very hard to sit for the examination. Candidates had to take the examination in a cramped examination hall. They followed a system of 3 days of exam for each subject wtih 3 days of rest, followed by another 3 days of exam and so on.

Scholars are called Mandarins, and they bring honour to their family name. Many people put in years of hard work just to sit for the exam.

Done by: Alicia Chua, Tanya Chee, Nicole Rusli, Nicole Lim, Michelle Choy, Jan Ong

Today, we woke up early and took a long bus journey to Tongli.

Tongli was beautiful. We saw the houses built along the river side. The water was very polluted, though. We had a very enjoyable trip at the Tuisi garden and the Jiayin hall, even though our legs were beat.

 Later, we took the bus to Suzhou and visited a historical site. It was named after a huge tiger. 

We walked like MAD today... climbed up hill and climb down again! It was all worth it!

 Then we went to Nanjing and had a delicious dinner!! and went back to the hotel to rest!

Done by Joy Peh, Bernice Bin, Liu KaiYi, Chang Wei Qin & Vanessa Koh.

Thank you for your overwhelming response to our blog. We know you have been waiting anxiously for our reply and update. 

We got off to an exciting start. It was a smooth journey to Shanghai from Singapore. The students could not wait to reach the destination. When we arrived on the first night, they encountered the first cultural shock when they had to eat lots and lots of vegetables and watermelons was the only dessert they were served after every meal. The first night ended very late for all of us after our cruise along the Huang Pu River. As the kids were too tired, we decided not to blog for the night, so that they could have sufficient sleep.

Today, we visited the Oriental Pearl Tower and the History Museum. To our amusement, we discovered that many of the locals thought that our kids were Japanese. The reason being, the lightning speed at which our children aimed their cameras and shoot at everything!

We discovered two things at Cheng Huang Temple. One, it is actually a major shopping area and two, the kids have mastered the art of bargaining at the ripe young age of ten! I think upbringing must have played an important part in this. =)

The sales assistants praised the children for their conversational Mandarin. 

We will leave the children to tell you about their circus experiences. They are too tired to do any blogging tonight.

Just to assure some anxious hearts, we have posted some pictures at "My Photos" where you will see that your children are in good shape.

From:

Mr John Lim, Mrs Goh, Mdm Seah, Miss Tay

Right after their CA2, they had to attend a "Cultural Immersion Lesson" in the library. During the lesson, they learnt about the history of China, some background information about 南京游府西街小学 and some interesting Chinese ancient poems.

Today, they were told to stay behind after the Teachers' Day concert for another short briefing --ensruing that all passports have been collected, reminding them what to bring, what time to meet, where to gather etc. They are really excited and looking forward to the trip! =)

Please refer to "My Photos" for the phtographs taken.